The REICHSTAG FIRE DECREE (German : Reichstagsbrandverordnung) is the
common name of the DECREE OF THE REICH PRESIDENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF
PEOPLE AND STATE (German : Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum
Schutz von Volk und Staat) issued by German President Paul von
Hindenburg on the advice of Chancellor
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler on 28 February
1933 in immediate response to the
Reichstag fireReichstag fire . The decree
nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With
Nazis in powerful positions in the German government , the decree was
used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to
be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress publications not considered
"friendly" to the Nazi cause. The decree is considered by historians
as one of the key steps in the establishment of a one-party Nazi state
in Germany.

Hitler had been appointed Chancellor of
GermanyGermany only four weeks
previously, on 30 January 1933, when he was invited by President von
Hindenburg to lead a coalition government. Hitler’s government had
urged von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and to call elections
for 5 March.

On the evening of 27 February 1933 — six days before the
parliamentary election — fire broke out in the Reichstag chambers.
While the exact circumstances of the fire remain unclear to this day,
what is clear is that Hitler and his supporters quickly capitalized on
the fire as a means by which to speed their consolidation of power.
Hitler almost immediately blamed the Communist Party of
GermanyGermany (KPD)
for causing the blaze, and believed the fire would result in more
Germans supporting the Nazis. According to
Rudolf Diels , Hitler was
heard shouting through the fire "these sub-humans do not understand
how the people stand at our side. In their mouse-holes, out of which
they now want to come, of course they hear nothing of the cheering of
the masses."

Seizing on the burning of the Reichstag building as the supposed
opening salvo in a communist uprising, the Nazis were able to throw
millions of Germans into a convulsion of fear at the threat of
Communist terror. The official account stated:

The burning of the Reichstag was intended to be the signal for a
bloody uprising and civil war . Large-scale pillaging in Berlin was
planned for as early as four o’clock in the morning on Tuesday. It
has been determined that starting today throughout
GermanyGermany acts of
terrorism were to begin against prominent individuals, against private
property , against the lives and safety of the peaceful population,
and general civil war was to be unleashed…

Within hours of the fire, dozens of Communists had been thrown into
jail. The next day, officials in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior
, which was led by
Hermann GöringHermann Göring , discussed ways to provide legal
cover for the arrests. Ludwig Grauert, the chief of the Prussian state
police, proposed an emergency presidential decree under
Article 48 of
the
Weimar Constitution , which gave the president the power to take
any measure necessary to protect public safety without the consent of
the Reichstag. It would have suspended most civil liberties under the
pretence of preventing further Communist violence. There had already
been discussions within the Cabinet about enacting such measures.
Justice Minister
Franz GürtnerFranz Gürtner , a member of the Nazis' coalition
partner, the German National People\'s Party (DNVP), had actually
brought a draft decree before the cabinet on the afternoon of 27
February.

When the proposed decree was brought before the Reich Cabinet,
Interior Minister
Wilhelm FrickWilhelm Frick , the only Nazi in the cabinet who had
a portfolio, added a clause that would allow the cabinet to take over
the state governments if they failed to maintain order. Notably, the
cabinet would have been allowed to do this on its own authority. Frick
was well aware that the Interior portfolio had been given to the Nazis
because it was almost powerless; unlike his counterparts in the rest
of Europe, he had no power over the police. He saw a chance to extend
his power over the states and thus begin the process of Nazifying the
country.

At an emergency cabinet meeting, Hitler declared that the fire now
made it a matter of "ruthless confrontation of the KPD"--a
confrontation that could not be "made dependent on judicial
considerations." Though Vice Chancellor
Franz von PapenFranz von Papen objected to
the clause giving the Reich cabinet the power to take over the state
governments if necessary, the decree was approved. Shortly thereafter,
President von Hindenburg signed the decree into law.

The decree consisted of six articles. Article 1 indefinitely
suspended most of the civil liberties set forth in the Weimar
Constitution, including habeas corpus , freedom of expression ,
freedom of the press , the right of free association and public
assembly , the secrecy of the post and telephone , not to mention the
protection of property and the home. Articles 2 and 3 allowed the
Reich government to assume powers normally reserved for the federal
states . Articles 4 and 5 established draconian penalties for certain
offenses, including the death penalty for arson to public buildings.
Article 6 simply stated that the decree took effect on the day of its
proclamation.

TEXT OF THE DECREE

The preamble and Article 1 of the
Reichstag Fire DecreeReichstag Fire Decree show the
methods by which the civil rights protections of the Weimar
Republic’s democratic constitution were legally abolished by the
Nazis:

VERORDNUNG DES REICHSPRäSIDENTEN ZUM SCHUTZ VON VOLK UND STAAT
ORDER OF THE REICH PRESIDENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF PEOPLE AND STATE

Auf Grund des Artikels 48 Abs. 2 der Reichsverfassung wird zur
Abwehr kommunistischer staatsgefährdender Gewaltakte folgendes
verordnet:
On the basis of
Article 48 paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the
German Reich, the following is ordered in defense against Communist
state-endangering acts of violence:

The decree was not accompanied by any written guidelines from the
Reich government; this omission gave wide latitude in interpreting the
decree to Nazis like Göring, who as Prussian interior minister was
the commander of the largest police force in Germany. The Länder not
yet in the Nazis’ grasp largely restricted themselves to banning the
Communist press, Communist meetings and demonstrations, and detaining
leading KPD officials. In Prussia, however, summary arrests of KPD
leaders were common, thousands were imprisoned in the days following
the fire, and the total number of arrests in
PrussiaPrussia on the basis of
the
Reichstag Fire DecreeReichstag Fire Decree in the two weeks following 28 February is
believed to be in the vicinity of 10,000. Göring had actually
employed such tactics even before the decree, only to have them thrown
out by the courts — a check that no longer had any effect with the
decree in place.

Göring issued a directive to the Prussian police authorities on 3
March, stating that in addition to the constitutional rights stripped
by the decree, “all other restraints on police action imposed by
Reich and State law” were abolished “so far as this is necessary
… to achieve the purpose of the decree.” Göring went on to say
that

In keeping with the purpose and aim of the decree the additional
measures … will be directed against the Communists in the first
instance, but then also against those who co-operate with the
Communists and who support or encourage their criminal aims… I would
point out that any necessary measures against members or
establishments of other than Communist, anarchist or Social Democratic
parties can only be justified by the decree … if they serve to help
the defense against such Communist activities in the widest sense.

Despite the virulent rhetoric directed against the Communists, the
Nazis did not formally ban the KPD right away. Not only did they fear
a violent uprising, but they hoped the KPD's presence on the ballot
would siphon off votes from the SPD. However, while the KPD managed to
win 81 seats, it was an open secret that the KPD deputies would never
be allowed to take their seats; they were thrown in jail as quickly as
the police could track them down. Increasingly, the courts treated KPD
membership as an act of treason. Thus, for all intents and purposes,
the KPD was banned as of 6 March, the day after the election.

Just over three weeks after the passage of the Reichstag Fire Decree,
Hitler’s National Socialists further tightened their grasp on
GermanyGermany by the passage of the Enabling Act . This act gave Hitler’s
cabinet the legal power to decree laws without being passed by the
Reichstag — effectively making Hitler a dictator. Leaving nothing to
chance, the Nazis did not even count the arrested KPD deputies for the
purposes of determining a quorum. They also used the provisions of the
Reichstag Fire DecreeReichstag Fire Decree to detain several SPD deputies, ensuring that it
would pass with two-thirds of those present and voting. As it turned
out, the highly intimidating atmosphere of that Reichstag session
resulted in the Enabling Act passing with enough support that it would
have garnered the required supermajority even if all KPD and SPD
deputies had been present.

In theory,
Article 48 gave the Reichstag the power to demand the
cancellation of the measures taken to enforce the Reichstag Fire
Decree. However, any realistic chance of it being cancelled ended in
July; by this time the other parties had either been banned outright
or intimidated into dissolving themselves, and the Nazi Party had been
declared the only legal party in Germany.

The
Reichstag Fire DecreeReichstag Fire Decree remained in force for the duration of the
Nazi era, allowing Hitler to rule under what amounted to martial law.
Along with the Enabling Act, it formed the legal basis for Hitler’s
dictatorship. Thousands of Hitler’s decrees, such as those which
turned
GermanyGermany into a one-party state, were explicitly based on its
authority, and hence on Article 48. This was a major reason Hitler
never formally abolished the Weimar Constitution, though it no longer
had any substantive value after the passage of the Enabling Act. It
was also a major factor, combined with the broader misuse of Article
48, behind the framers of the postwar Basic Law for the Federal
Republic of
GermanyGermany opting to significantly curb the powers of the
president, to the point that he has little de facto executive power.

SEE ALSO

German
WikisourceWikisource has original text related to this article: FULL
TEXT OF REICHSTAG FIRE DECREE (GERMAN)